Mortal Kombat X: Earth?
by RachieFly
Summary: Some of the characters from the new Mortal Kombat X game have came through the tv and entered Earth! What's going to happen? Only something funny can come from this situation, especially with the crazy twins leading them! Laugh as they have the adventure of a lifetime trying to get them back home.
1. Lightning, 911 and Good Intentions

**FATALITY**

When the stereo boomed out the words of his twin sister's demise, Nicholas Hale jumped off the couch and pointed at her with a triumphant look on his face. "I want you to say my name!"

His sister, Connie Hale, grimaced. "No."

"Say it!" He set his controller aside and pointed at her with both fingers. "Say the name of the person who beat you three times in a row with the same character!"

"You already know you won, so why do you want me to say it so bad?"

"Because I want you to acknowledge your failure in life and inferiority to me."

The seventeen year old female sitting on the couch, grimaced yet again and folded her arms across her chest. This was the exact reason she didn't want to play this game with her brother. The same reason she didn't want to play any video game with her brother. Every time he won, he acted as though he accomplished something important, and since he was naturally good at video games, she had to hear him go on and on about his greatness all the time. And for whatever reason, the boasting of himself up usually came along with putting her down.

While she wanted to regret giving into his persistent begging of her to play with him, she couldn't do so fully. It was the new Mortal Kombat X game, after all. She and her brother were big fans of the series—one of the only interests that the two could bond over. They'd beaten the whole game just two days after buying it. She thought the story mode was amazing and while her favorite character had and always would be Kenshi, she really liked the new characters as well. Nick thoroughly liked it too; he thought the new moves were awesome, and though he had a weird infatuation with Raiden, he appreciated the new characters too.

"The day I'm inferior to you is the day pigs fly."

"Pigs flew when we were born?"

"No, but your teeth are going to fly right out of your mouth if you don't leave me alone."

He grinned, enjoying provoking her wrath. Grabbing his controller, he sat back next to her and poked her cheek. "You know what your problem is? You keep using that blind swordsman as your fallback. I don't understand why you like him so much, he sure as heck doesn't pose a threat to Raiden. You were better off using one of the new characters."

She knew he was goading her, but she couldn't help but to take the bait; his know it all attitude was truly starting to grate at her nerves. "Just because you beat me a few times doesn't mean you're the almighty. I know what I'm doing. Kenshi is one of the best characters."

Nick gasped and put his hand over his heart. "How dare you say those words with your mouth?! Kenshi can't touch Raiden! Nobody can touch Raiden!"

"Your precious Raiden was five seconds from dying when Shinnok was free!"

Nick frowned. "Are you calling me out? It sounds like you're calling me out! I don't appreciate being called out! But if you're calling me out—"

"Oh my gosh, is there an off button on you anywhere?!"

"No…fun fact, I actually know this from experience. When I was younger, I thought there was, but it turned out that wasn't an off button. It was just my—" He was cut off immediately.

"Don't finish that sentence." When he opened his mouth to continue, she gave him a stern look. "I mean it, Nick. Do not finish that sentence. I don't care what it was, I don't want to know. Not now. Not ever."

Using what little common sense he had, Nick decided to let it go. Instead he turned his attention back to the game. "Let's play another round. I'll show you why Raiden is the Thunder god and Kenshi is but a lowly swordsman."

"No, I'm going to bed."

"Bed? It's only two in the morning."

"I love how you say 'only two is the morning' as if that's an early time for people to be going to sleep."

"It's the weekend though."

"Weekend or not, we still have things to do tomorrow." She yawned then. "Not only that, but it's pouring outside and rain makes me sleepy." As if to help prove her point, they could see a flash light up the sky from the window and loud crack of thunder sounded off seconds later

Nick ignored it and started sniffing the air. "You smell that?"

Connie looked at him, slightly confused. "What?"

"That smell…" He sniffed around a little more, getting closer to his sister before stopping. "It smells like chicken!" He jumped back up and started flapping his arms and pecking at the air. "Bawk! Bawk! Bawk!"

Her face dropped the instant she realized he was wasting her time and her nostrils flared. "And you wonder why you have no job, no friends and no girlfriend."

"Wrong! I don't have those things because I don't want them; if I had a job, friends and a girlfriend, I wouldn't have enough time for Mortal Kombat. Bawk! Bawk! Bawk! Oink!"

"…did you just say oink?"

"Old McDonald had a lot of animals on his farm, Connie. Don't be species-ist."

"Why do this universe allow you to exist?"

"Why does the Mortal Kombat universe allow Johnny Cage to exist? That's the real question. At least my being here adds beauty to the world, but Johnny? All he does is give people headaches." He frowned briefly at the thought of the actor; he would sooner take a shock from Raiden than play as Johnny. His sister shook her head and stood up to walk away, but before she could get too far, he grabbed her arm. "Wait, come on. One more round. If you win, I won't ask you to play with me anymore for a whole week."

She started to tell him to forget it, but stopped when she thought about it. "You can't play it at all for a whole week."

He looked reluctant at first, but a confident smile took its place soon after. "Fine, but if I win…you must address me as Raiden's long lost son, Raiden jr."

Connie looked disturbed and genuinely concerned for her brother's mental health for a moment, but shook it off and shrugged. "Deal."

 **RAIDEN**

It took all of ten seconds for Nick to sit down and choose his character. He grinned cockily at his sister. "Kenshi will fail."

Connie sat back down in her spot as well and grabbed her controller. "Who said I was picking Kenshi?"

 **RAIDEN**

Nick looked thrown off for a second. "It doesn't make a difference. If you cannot control my father properly, then it's pointless."

She ignored the way he addressed Raiden. "I'm going to beat you at your own game, Nick."

"Nick? Who's Nick? My name is Raiden jr."

"I want you to think about this moment the next time you ask me why we're not friends on Facebook."

 **FIGHT**

The fight didn't last long; the first two rounds were over in less than four minutes. Connie wasn't used to using Raiden and up against her brother, she went down fairly quick. It was close to being a flawless victory. However, in the second round, Nick was being so cocky that he didn't even bother to look at his health bar. Before he realized it, Connie's Raiden was standing triumphantly over his Raiden's body. He was thoroughly confused by how this happened, but made sure not to underestimate her in the last round.

And it was in that last round that something had changed. Both twins had managed to bring the other's life down to an extremely low point which left them cautious. They stood on the opposite ends of the screen, waiting for the other to make the first move.

"This is the end," Nick mumbled, formulating a plan in his mind.

Connie didn't respond as she was too focused on the situation. She couldn't lose this. She couldn't give him the satisfaction. And she definitely couldn't call him Raiden's long lost son for a week. Taking a chance, she made the first move, jumping toward him and then using Raiden's torpedo move. Almost instinctively, Nick used the same move to counteract it. Just as they hit each other, an actual bolt of lightning struck their TV. It happened in all of seconds and the impact of the strike sent the twins flying back into the wall.

The screen froze on the two Thunder gods as the lightning continued to buzz around the television. It went white for a few seconds and then returned to the character screen. Several of the character slots turned black as if the characters were being erased, and if that wasn't strange enough, a leg came through the TV. Then another leg. And those legs were attached to a body.

The body of Raiden the Thunder god.

"Oh…my…goofy goobers…" Nick rubbed his eyes in disbelief as he stared at his favorite character, who was now standing in his living room.

He hadn't finished processing what happened before he realized the situation wasn't over yet. Kenshi stepped out of the television next, followed by Jax, Erron Black and host of others. It was only when Mileena came through that the lightning and buzzing faded away. Immediately after, the TV and Xbox One set fire. All was silent for what seemed like the longest minute in history before someone finally spoke.

Mileena looked around wearily. "Where is this?"

Somehow, Nick managed to pick himself and his jaw up from the floor. He slowly walked toward the group of characters with his hands up in a surrendering fashion. "We come in peace."

Despite his words, a few characters got into a battle stance. One of those characters was Scorpion; he took out his sword and growled, "Where we are?"

Connie, who was still on the floor and in a state of shock, slowly started crawling toward the house phone that was on their wall. However, nobody seemed to be paying attention to her as they were focused on her brother who still walking toward them.

"No need for hostility. You all are in my living room."

"How did we get here?" Raiden spoke.

When Nick turned to him, his eyes widened and shined as if he was a kid in a candy store. "…daddy?"

"Excuse me?"

Without a thought for his own safety, Nick opened his arms to hug him. "It's me, your son."

Before he could even lay a finger on the Thunder god, he was grabbed, held in the air and shocked with thousands of volts of electricity. When thrown down, every hair on his body was standing up and he looked incredibly dazed. It took him a little longer to force himself to his feet this time and smoke was coming off of him as he rose. He twitched as he spoke in a softer, slightly less zealous voice. "Okay…you're a little confused…I can understand that."

"Um, are you okay?" Jacqui Briggs asked, noticing his erratic twitching.

He turned to her a nodded, trying unsuccessfully to control his random jerks. "Yeah, I'm alright. My heart hurts more than my body."

"Are you sure about that? You're literally smoking."

"That's just a side effect from being so hot. It happens." It was then that he noticed just how much smoke there was. When he realized half of the smoke was coming from his aflame electronic devices, his eyes practically bulged out of his head. "Oh, snap! Water, water, water! Sub-Zero, you're close enough!"

Sub-Zero narrowed his eyes and looked reluctant, but eventually froze the TV and game system, turning them into blocks of ice.

Nick looked relieved. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"Hello? 911? I need help. My video game's characters are standing in the middle of my living room. What do you mean what do I mean? They came through my television and are about to attack us." Connie had grabbed the house phone and called for help. She started off speaking in a low voice, but when it became apparent they didn't believe her, she grew frustrated and louder. "Stop laughing! This isn't a joke and I'm not on drugs! Mortal Kombat characters are going to kill me and my brother!"

Without warning, but with amazing accuracy, Erron Black whipped out his gun and shot the phone in her hands, causing it to break in several pieces. Startled, Connie let out a scream and quickly dove behind the couch. She was only hidden for a few seconds before Kenshi used his power to lift up the couch and move it away. Now revealed, she curled into a ball and shivered with fear.

"Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"

"Connie, get up," Nick said as he looked at his sister. "They're not going to kill us."

D'Vorah took out her pincers, threateningly. "This one thinks we should kill them."

A fearful expression came to both twin's faces then. Connie considered making an attempt to run, at least then she'd have died trying. Nick, on the other hand, considered trying to touch Raiden again, at least then he'd have died by the hands of his favorite character. Before either officially decided to go through with it, Jax stepped in.

"Wait, they look just like us; we're probably in Earthrealm."

"But I wasn't in Earthrealm," Erron Black said, his gun still in hand.

"And I wasn't…alive," Mileena noted aloud.

Immediately D'Vorah turned to Mileena and sneered. "Yes, this one took your worthless life a while ago."

She narrowed her eyes. "Well it's time for retribution."

Mileena took her sais out and the two females began to circle each other, growling. Just as Mileena went to make a move, Erron Black stepped up with two guns. He pointed them at both females, his finger on the trigger and ready. "You're both traitors to Kotal Khan and you both deserve to die." Mileena growled again, but stopped moving as did D'Vorah.

Reptile went to stand at his side in support. "Tear them to pieces!"

"Aw, Erron, what did you break them up for? It was about to be a girl fight." Nick looked disappointed, but it changed to nervousness when the gun pointed on D'Vorah was shifted to him instead.

"Shut it and tell me what realm we're in."

"Earthrealm. I can read them," Takeda answered suddenly. "The girl is crying in her thoughts and he is…" He frowned. "He is thinking inappropriate things about Cassie."

Cassie looked taken aback and Johnny frowned causing Nick to glare at Takeda. "Thanks for throwing me under the bus! Do you all not have a guy code?"

"Earth," Connie spoke finally, but in a soft voice.

"What?"

She cleared her throat and with the speed of a handicapped turtle, rose to her feet. "Not Earth Realm, just Earth. There are no realms; this is one planet. You can't leave…"

They all looked confused, some more than others, but Sonya was the first to make a move. She mumbled something under her breath about the whole situation being ridiculous and then, using her special forces technology, proceeded to make a portal to leave. When she walked through it, the portal appeared on the other side of the room and she came right back in. Her eyes widened in surprise as she balked and she tried again. Raiden looked surprised too and he attempted to teleport out, but also, ended up back in the living room. Kenshi took out his sword and held it up to see if his ancestors would reveal anything.

"I told you, you can't leave. It's not going to work."

"But please continue; I can watch this all day."

 **GET OVER HERE**

Without warning, Scorpion shot his spear at Nick, grabbing onto his shirt and yanking him toward him. When Nick's brain caught up with the rest of his body, his eyes practically bulged out of his head.

"What kind of magic is this?! Do you work for Quan Chi?! Bring him to me! I demand you release me this instant!"

"Nick!" A panicked Connie called out.

"It's okay, Connie. We talked about anger management in Health class; I know what I'm doing." He gave the spectre in front of him a sympathetic look. "Scorpion…do you possibly have unresolved mommy issues? Did she not hug you enough as a child?"

Almost like a ragdoll, Nick's body was thrown across the room and hit the wall with a thud. Scorpion took out his sword and started over to him with the intentions of making him confess what magic was binding them there. Before he was able to reach him, Raiden stepped in front of him and signaled for him to stop.

"Stop Scorpion. They are telling the truth about this being not being Earthrealm. This place is much larger and different. I don't know if they're using magic or not, but they don't work for Quan Chi or Shinnok. I can't even reach the elder gods…" Raiden's voice was thick with uncertainty.

"My ancestors are barely picking up anything; I don't think its magic," Kenshi announced.

Scorpion looked unwilling to accept the idea and he growled, but put his sword away. Meanwhile, Connie rushed to her brother's aid and helped him to his feet. Nick looked dazed once again, but he dusted himself off as if there was no problem. With a slight limp in his walk, he went back over to the group.

"Thanks dad—I mean, Raiden. Now that we've got that settled, let me just lay this situation out so that we're all on the same page." He made eye contact with every character. "Connie and I were playing you all's video game. Lightning struck the TV. You all came through the TV. The TV and Xbox exploded. I saw Jacqui in person and I fell for her instantly. I took her on a few dates and married her a few months later. We had four kids. One was named Raiden the third—"

Connie slapped Nick on the arm and shot him a strange look. "Nick, be serious."

"Right. Sorry, I must've been looking into the future."

Jacqui rolled her eyes while Takeda and Jax frowned deeply. Several of them were beginning not to like him.

"What do you mean, we came through your TV?" Sonya demanded.

"And what video game are you talking about?" Jax asked.

"What do you mean, what do I mean? You came through my TV. Do you not remember doing that a few minutes ago?" He turned to Jax. "And your video game. Mortal Kombat. X, to be specific. Don't you remember saying 'cry uncle'? Geez, you guys' memories are terrible."

Jax and everyone else looked clueless as to what he was talking about. Sonya wasn't finished however; she walked over to him. "People don't just walk through televisions. You must've brought us here somehow."

"Sonya, beautiful, I didn't bring you here on purpose…but if I knew how, I can't promise you that I wouldn't do it again."

His response only served to irritate her more and Johnny had to step up and calm her down. Putting his hands on her shoulder, he gave her an understanding yet confident look. "Sonya, it's alright. Don't worry. We'll get back."

"But coming through their TV and video games…?"

"Honestly, it's not that hard to believe they'd make a video game with me in it."

"Yes it is," Nick mumbled under his breath.

After a few seconds, Sonya calmed down. "Alright, fine. Hypothetically everything you said happened…how do we get back home?"

"Well I think we can rule out the TV," Kung Jin said, jutting his thumb as the frozen cube of a television.

"I don't know how we're going to return to our universe," Raiden answered and the pointed at Nick and Connie, "but I do know that we're going to need the help of these two."

Nick grinned." Yeah. Trust me, we're going to do everything in our power to get you guys back home…just not tonight."

"When?" Sub Zero asked.

"Well judging by the fact that my television was struck by lightning…my Xbox exploded…and the new Mortal Kombat game is probably disintegrated…I'd say about a month. Possibly two."

"What?!" they all yelled in unison, including his sister.

Nick turned to Connie. "Well yeah, it's going to take a while. But don't worry, it's going to be awesome."

"Awesome?" Mileena repeated, disgusted. "What part of being stuck here with you is awesome?"

"All of it. I'm not so bad, babe. You'll come to love me…as I already love you." He winked at her.

Connie punched him this time. She couldn't understand why he was so calm with this situation and comfortable enough to flirt with them. "Stop flirting with the females, Nick."

"I can't help myself…but moving on, since we're going to be here for a little while, I suggest we get to know each other. Let's introduce ourselves."

The characters looked to Raiden with pleading eyes, begging for him to do something about this situation. However, the Thunder god could only sigh and look away, disturbed.

"I'm Nicholas Hale, but you can just call me Nick. This is my twin sister Connie Hale, and you can just call her Connie or Con." He thought about it for a moment. "Or Con-artist…or Conster…oh, but I love calling her Conster-pated. And Con-gress or Con-troversial issues will work too—basically anything negative that starts with Con."

"Connie is fine." She glared at him.

"I like to let people know their options." Nick pointed to Scorpion then. "And you are?"

"I am seconds away from standing over your smoldering corpse," the spectre threatened.

"Okay…no need for introductions, after all." Even though he was a good distance from Scorpion, he took an extra step back as a precaution. "It's not like I don't know you all, anyway. Scorpion, Sub Zero, Raiden, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Takeda Takahashi, Kung Jin, Jacqui Briggs, Cassie Cage, D'Vorah, Mileena, Erron Black and Reptile."

Unsure what to say, no one spoke for a minute.

"Well then…if nobody has anything else to say…we can all just hit the hay, I suppose…"

"Why do we need to hit hay?" Reptile asked.

"We're not actually going to hit hay—I don't think I've ever even seen hay in real life. It's just another way of saying let's go to sleep."

"Sleep here? I don't know this place; I refuse."

"Um, you don't really have a choice. But if you all feel the need to, you can check out your surroundings. Just don't go in the basement; our dog is asleep down there."

Before Nick even finished the sentence, the group dispersed and starting snooping around the area. All left except Raiden, who was standing still, an unhappy look on his face. He let out a heavy sigh. "I don't like this."

"Don't worry about it, Raiden." Nick walked up to him and gave him a reassuring smile. "Everything's going to be fine. Let your long lost son take care of you."

"What?"

"Shhh…right now, you need to sleep…you do sleep, right?"

Raiden looked at him, but didn't respond.

"Doesn't matter. I have the sleeping arrangements all planned out. Cassie, Sonya, Jacqui, Mileena and possibly D'Vorah will stay in my room. You can stay in my parent's room, because it just seems appropriate. And everyone else can find a spot on the couch or grab some floor."

Connie shot him a look and then punched him in the arm again. "Stop being stupid."

"Right. Kenshi can stay in Connie's room."

"…I'm listening."

"I may not know much about this place, but I do know that those sleeping arrangements don't have good intentions backed up behind them," Raiden said.

"They're good intentions…good for me."

"He's right." Connie shook her head. "All of you will sleep out here and we'll bring down some blankets."

Raiden nodded and then went to sit on the couch. "Thank you Nicholas and Conster-pated Hale."

Connie grimaced and then went off to get the blankets as Nick laughed for a minute. "Good one, Raiden. You can just call me Nick though."

Raiden wasn't listening as he was too busy analyzing one of the Xbox One controllers and Mortal Kombat X game case. "…I don't like this."

* * *

Alright, the majority of you all said to redo, so that's what I did. It is more work, but it's fun work to me, so I don't really mind. ^_^ Thanks for all those responses and I hope you enjoyed this so far. I cleaned it up, changed a few things and so on. Let me know.


	2. Teeth, Actors and Bacon

"Nick! Wake up!" Connie pushed her brother again for the umpteenth time. "I swear, you'd sleep through an atom bomb!"

Slowly, Nick opened his eyes and turned over to glare at her. "Who gave you permission to step into my domain, Ex-con?"

Having grown tired of his many nicknames for her, she growled and used all the strength in her body to shove him off the bed. Since he was wrapped tightly in his covers, he couldn't use his hands to break his fall. Instead, his face hit the floor and he let out a pained groan.

"Ouch…thanks a lot." It took him a few seconds to untangle himself and rise to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head as he glared at her again. "Once again, why are you in my room?"

"Maybe you forgot," Connie said in a progressively irritated tone, "but we have guests."

"I didn't forget actually—for a few minutes I was trying to, but then you came in and decided to remind me."

"Of course I did! You're the one that said 'this will be awesome', 'everything's going to be fine' and 'we'll figure it all out'." When she quoted Nick, she spoke in a voice similar to that of Barney the purple dinosaur.

"I don't sound like that! And we will figure it—in fact, I think I already did."

"What are you talking about?"

He walked over to his desk where almost twenty completely covered papers were scattered about. The writing on them looked like scribbling and several things were crossed out. He scanned through the papers, picked up one in particular, and then held it out for Connie to see. "Why do you think I was ignoring you and trying to continue sleeping?"

Giving him a suspicious look, Connie walked over and took the paper. It took her a long moment before she was able to decipher what his scribbles actually said. As she looked over it, she saw that it was a plan on how to return the characters to their universe. Essentially the sheet said that if the characters came through the television, there was no reason why they shouldn't be able to go back that way. Of course they'd need a new TV and game system, but that was the easy part. The hard part was waiting for lightning to strike their TV again.

Connie looked over at the other sheets of paper and was shocked to see the amount of detail Nick put into it. Some sheets were about the possible flaws and bad outcomes with the plan, and others were about how to keep the characters hidden for the time being. Eventually, she looked back at her brother, still surprised. "You did all of this? How long did this take you?"

"All night; I just finished an hour ago. It's funny how several volts of electricity running through your veins can cause you not to sleep. The good thing about thing about it though, is that I've managed to control my twitching."

Slightly concerned for her brother, Connie took a closer look and saw that his eyes were red and there were bags underneath them. For a quick second, she felt bad, but that passed away when she remembered why the characters were there in the first place. He just had to play one more round…

"What do you think? Good plan, huh?"

"I don't know, Nick. I guess it's worth a shot—any idea is better than nothing—but if you ask me do I believe it's going to work that simply, the answer is no."

"That's why I didn't ask you that."

She frowned. "Listen, Mr. Man-With-The-Master-Plan, everybody is downstairs fighting. Since you have everything figured out so well, you should've planned for this. So go down there and break them up."

"SCUBA DIVING!" Nick shouted suddenly, startling his sister. When she jumped back and gave him a confused look, a sheepish smile appeared on his face. "Sorry…while I did manage to control the twitching, for some reason, now I shout random words from time to time. So far it's only happened about five times and the words make no sense. I would try to control this too, but honestly, it makes me feel closer to Raiden, because he shouts crazy things sometimes too."

Putting her hand over her heart and closing her eyes, Connie took a moment to collect herself. After doing so, without warning, she grabbed her brother by the collar and pulled him closer. "If you do that by my ear again, I'm going to knock every last tooth out of your mouth."

"…you ever notice how your threats always have something to do with my teeth?"

The urge to punch him was so strong then and she started to give into it. Her fist was balled up and she was just about to cock it back when they were interrupted by loud voices.

 ** _Sure we haven't met before? | You're still alive, aren't you?_**

 ** _You will remember me, insect! | Yes, every time we pass your grave!_**

 ** _The actor… | Just like you, working for a scale._**

 ** _Is this because I'm dating Jacqui? | You're dating Jacqui?!_**

 ** _Special Forces vs Lin Kuei? | If you wish…_**

Nick chuckled. "Oh, Takeda's going to get it now…"

Connie yanked him forward and then released his collar. "Go. Fix. This. Now."

"Alright, alright."

Nick made his way downstairs at a pace slower than his sister's likings. When he actually saw for himself the fighting that was taking place, he was amazed and horrified. He never thought he'd get to see Reptile spit acid in real life…and he certainly never thought he'd see it hit the wall and start burning through it. "Yikes. What are we going to do?"

"Nothing. We are going to do nothing…but you, on the other hand, are going to put an end to this before we become homeless."

Nick had been so focused on how to get the characters home that he didn't plan for that scenario or any one with them fighting. Of course, he couldn't let his sister know that, so he had to pretend as though he knew what he was doing. Giving into the impulsive decision to take his shirt off, he threw it in Connie's face. "Watch and learn, Con-gress."

Not waiting around for her possibly violent response, he walked out into the battlefield that used to be their living room. When he found a small area in the corner of the room that was safe from all projectiles, he shouted, "I demand you attention! Stop fighting!"

No response.

"This is Sparta!"

No response.

"Get to the choppa!"

No response.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

Sub Zero stopped for a brief moment and looked at him, but then went right back to fighting.

"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!"

Somehow, the characters started fighting even harder and Nick finally accepted the fact that they weren't paying him any attention. Just when he started trying to think of a Plan B, he caught sight of Scorpion bringing up Hell Fire from the floor, burning Jacqui.

Nick's jaw dropped and he darted over to him, just barely missing a bullet from Erron's gun. "Scorpion, cut that out! You're damaging two things that I just can't support—Jacqui's face and my carpet. While I don't like the big black patches you're leaving everywhere, I'm more concerned about Jacqui's face. Come on, I've got to marry her one day! The pictures won't come out nice if she's got spear holes and burns all over her body!"

Scorpion turned to him and raised his fist as though he was going to strike him next. Luckily, Jacqui punched him before he could do so, sending him flying back.

"I love a woman that can protect me when a resurrected fire ninja tries to attack me."

Too focused on the fight to hear a word Nick said, Jacqui continued to go after Scorpion. Nick started to cheer her on, but changed his mind when one of Mileena's sais flew past his face and into the wall. Deciding to back away from the danger that seemed to keep narrowly missing him, Nick ended up bumping into his favorite character.

"Oh my goofy goobers, Raiden! I'm so glad to see you!" Nick held up his hand toward him. "I know you're not a hug-person, but what about high fives?" Raiden just stared at his hand until it fell back to his side. "I'll take that as a no."

"I apologize for shocking you yesterday. In order to avoid another instance like that, it'd be in your best interest not to touch me without permission…or call me your father."

"…what about dad or daddy? Pop or papa?"

Raiden frowned. "No."

Nick looked reluctant for a moment, but sighed. "Fine…but I'm still going to think it in my head."

Raiden didn't seem to appreciate that, but he didn't voice it.

"Raiden, what are we going to do about this?" He gestured to the many fights. "They're wrecking my house and they won't stop. I even shouted obvious movie quotes and they didn't stop to guess what movie!"

"You claim to know about us and our lives. Do you not know that you must wait until each fight is over before a winner can be declared?"

"I don't have the luxury of waiting; if I wait, everything in sight is going to be destroyed…including me!"

"This is the nature of Mortal Kombat."

Right at the end of his sentence, one of Takeda's ninja daggers landed near his feet. Nick ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "Well this is not the nature on Earth! Maybe in prison, but not in my house! If you won't help me stop them, then I'll do it myself."

"Wait Nicholas Hale, I have a question," Raiden said suddenly.

"And I have an answer, you first."

Raiden looked unamused by the remark, but continued, "You are an adolescent, correct? Where are your parental guardians?"

"What do you mean? You're right here…"

He frowned again.

"Fine. My regular parents work far away from here; they travel a lot because of their job." He shrugged as if he didn't care one way or another. "Me and Connie are usually by ourselves, so don't be surprised if you don't seem them at any point. I mean, the last time I spoke with them, they said they were coming back in a week or so, but don't hold your breath about it."

"Do you and your sister take care of yourselves?"

"Yeah, basically. It's not all that hard; while our parents may not come home, they sends checks, so we're fine." He glanced back at the battle. "As much as I'd like to continue this conversation, I really have to go put a stop to this."

Nick ran to the middle of the room where he was very vulnerable and surrounded by fire, ice, swords and other weapons. Not seeing many other options than to break it up himself, he looked around for the safest two to stop. Only pondering on it for a few seconds, he jumped in the middle of Kung Jin and Cassie, and pushed them apart. "Stop fighting!"

"Shaolin punk!" Cassie said, wiping the blood from her mouth.

"Military grunt!" Kung Jin retorted, reaching for an arrow.

"I said stop! If you don't listen then you won't hear what I have to say."

"Unless it's about my boot on Jin's face then it's not important!"

"It's about going back to your universe—I found a way to get you guys home!"

As if the magic words were spoken, everyone immediately stopped fighting and turned to him. Takeda was the first to speak. "You did? I thought you said it would take a month."

"It probably still will. I did make a plan to get you all home, but it can't really be executed right now."

"Why is this?" Sub Zero asked, skeptically.

"LAMBORGHINI!"

"…what?"

"Sorry, just ignore that…anyway, remember yesterday when my television and gaming system exploded? That has something to do with it." Everybody started mumbling at once then and Nick quickly shushed them before they could become rowdy. "Like I said yesterday, we're going to get you guys back. Whether you go back in one piece or many pieces is completely up to you…but preferably one piece."

"This one chooses to send Mileena back in many pieces," D'Vorah threatened, snarling at the Tarkatan hybrid.

"D'Vorah, you somewhat beautiful, yet incredibly disgusting rebel…please don't. I wanted to see that fight yesterday, but not now. I don't want to see any fighting right now. You all are demolishing my house and scaring Con-Artist." He gestured to his sister, who was looking on from the hallway. "Get out here, Connie."

Several of the group turned and watched as Connie cautiously made her way out of the hallway. She walked over to where her brother was standing and stood behind him. When she realized all eyes were still on her, she spoke in a low voice, "…hello everyone…"

"You see? That's the voice of a frightened and unattractive person. Look at her face. That's the face of a scared and unattractive person. It's not your fault she's ugly, but you can't go around scaring her because—"

"Thank you, Nick." She cut him off with a smack to the back of the head.

"All I'm trying to say is that you can't fight in my house. There are rules to this world just as there are to yours."

"Any other rules we should be aware of?" Kenshi asked.

"Plenty, but none that are really relevant right now. Well actually," a sly grin appeared on his face as he continued, "we wash a lot on this planet. Most times, we wash together. So if anybody wanted to get in the shower with me…" He made eye contact with Cassie, Jacqui, Sonya and Mileena. He started to look at D'Vorah, but then changed his mind.

"It'll be a cold day in Hell before I ever let you lay a hand on me." Sonya scoffed.

"Is this a mutual feeling?"

Cassie and Jacqui nodded adamantly as did their fathers in agreement, but Mileena didn't respond. She was looking at the bug goop on her body that D'Vorah had thrown at her. "I do want to shower…"

When Nick's eyes grew large with hope, Connie smacked his head again, but harder this time. "Nick, stop being perverted or else I'm going to break all of your teeth."

"Here we go with the teeth thing again…fine, whatever. You don't have to wash with me…yet. Just don't fight for now."

"Or else what?" Scorpion challenged, narrowed eyes.

He looked at him, concerned. "Why must you come at me with hostility? I'm you're friend, Scorpion."

"I don't have any friends!"

"Oh! We talked about this in Health class too. Were you bullied as a child?"

Teleporting and leaving a trail of fire behind him, Scorpion appeared next to Nick and punched him in the stomach. "Mock me again and I'll have your head!"

Connie jumped back and quickly moved over to where Kenshi was standing. For some reason, she felt slightly safer standing next to him. She watched her brother hunch over and try to regain his breath. After a minute or so, he was still breathing heavily, but he was finally able to speak. "…why, oh why, couldn't you come here in your Hanzo variation?" He took another moment to collect himself before he spoke again. "You have to stop with all of that or else I won't help you get back, and you need me. There, satisfied?"

"Do we really need you?" Cassie said, a smirk now on her face. "It seems like we could get more done without you."

"Cassie, sweetheart, you need me more than anyone else; you need a real man to love you. The guys in your group are lame, your daddy sucks and let's be honest, no one else here has a body to match mine." He flexed then, showing off his abs and muscles. While he was a relatively short guy, he made up for it with his body, or at least he thought so. "If I'm not here to take care of you, who else will?"

"How about me?"

"You take care of yourself?" Nick looked as if he hadn't thought about that. "It's a thought…but why go that route, when you can have all of this?"

"Stop flirting with the females, Nick!" Connie hissed.

"…but they're so beautiful." He looked at Sonya and then blew a kiss at her.

"So you flirt with me and then my mom? Nice," Cassie said and then stuck a piece of gum in her mouth.

"What can I say? I have a weakness for beautiful women."

Sonya folded her arms across her chest. "Just stop it, alright? I already have one Johnny Cage in my life and I can't get rid of that one no matter how hard I try. I certainly don't need another."

"You always make me feel wanted, babe," Johnny said with a grin.

"Shut it."

Nick frowned. "I'm nothing like him. First of all I'm not an actor; trust me, I'm the real deal. You can touch me to see if you want. And secondly, I'm way better looking than Johnny."

Johnny let out a laugh. "Are you what passes for good looking here? Wow, I didn't realize how primitive this world was."

"Did you really just say those words with your mouth?"

"Pretty sure I did."

"Come at me, Johnny! It'll only be two hits! I'll hit you and you'll hit the floor!" Nick put his fists up and got into a fighting stance.

"Nick, give it a rest." After making sure Scorpion wasn't going to attack anymore, Connie walked back over to her brother and grabbed his arm. She started pulling him away from the situation. "All you're doing is wasting time."

"No, you know what's a waste of time? Johnny's character."

"That may be true, but you know what? Arguing with him isn't going to change anything. We should be focused on your plan and what we're going to do today."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He shot Johnny one last glare before pulling himself together. Clearing his throat, he stepped away from his sister and clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone, listen up. Today Conster and I had plans to go to the mall and pick up a few things. Now since the items we need to get you guys back are in the mall too, I figure we'll grab those as well. Well hit Game-Stop, Best Buy and a few other places and then we'll be right back here."

"Who are Game-Stop and Best Buy, and why are we going to hit them?" Reptile demanded.

Connie couldn't help but to laugh at his lack of knowledge about slang. "Those are stores, Reptile."

"Well why are we hitting stores?"

"We're not actually going to hit the store itself; it's just a saying here that mean we're going to shop and stuff."

Raiden shook his head. "You people with hitting stores and hay."

"Good one, Raiden! You ever think about dropping the whole god thing and becoming a comedian? No?" When Nick received no response aside from a blank stare, he sighed. "I feel like we don't talk like we used to…"

"I never spoke with you before last evening."

"I know, but in my head we spoke a lot more often."

"Anyway," Connie started before her brother could go off on another tangent, "who's staying here with them?"

"Huh? Nobody."

"…we can't leave them here alone, Nick; we won't have a house to come back to."

"I mean, nobody's staying here, period. We're all going to the mall."

A concerned look appeared on her face. "Did you really think this through?"

"HYDROCLORIC ACID!" Not even bothering to acknowledge the fact that he just shouted again, he continued, "Yes, I did…but even if I didn't, it's not like we have many other options. You'd die here if I left you alone with half of them. And how would you get to the mall by yourself? You can't drive. So either way, you'd die without me."

She grimaced. "As always, you're so encouraging."

"I know, right? I was thinking about becoming a motivational speaker."

A sarcastic remark was on the tip of her tongue, but she decided to keep it to herself. He'd get his one of these days—she'd make sure of it, but that wasn't the right moment for it. Right then, she had to take care of a few things that were on her mind before they departed. "I'm going to go take Mittens out now; he's probably going crazy from all the noise."

"Who is this Mittens?" Mileena asked suddenly.

"Our dog."

When she looked confused, Connie just stared at her. "Have you never seen a dog?"

"Do we kill it?"

"…no."

"Eat it?"

"…also no."

Still confused, Mileena huffed. "I want to see this Mittens dog that we can't kill or eat."

"Umm…maybe next time…"

"No, take her this time, Con-cubine."

Connie turned back to him and shot him a look. "Nick, I don't like—"

"That nickname? Yeah, neither do I actually. It's a little weird to call you that…"

"I'm talking about that idea!" She slapped his arm and then spoke in a lower voice that only he could hear, "I don't want to take her with me…"

"Why not? You're always talking about my teeth; with her, you two will really have something to bond over." Before she could protest any further, Nick gestured for Mileena come over to them. "Want to see, Mittens? You can watch Connie take him out to pee."

Connie's eye grew large, but Nick just pushed her along and then directed Mileena to follow her to the basement. He then turned back to the rest of the group. "Speaking of food, would any of you like some breakfast before we go? You guys do eat, right?"

"What do you have?" Jax asked.

"Mostly sugary cereals and cheese sticks, but I suppose if you really wanted, I could make some eggs and bacon."

"I'm down for eggs and bacon," Takeda said while rubbing his stomach.

"Same." Kung Jin gave a thumbs up.

"Not if you're cooking it," Johnny muttered, earning a chuckle from his daughter and Jacqui.

Somehow Nick heard and he immediately glowered at the man. "I'll have you know, aside from video games and pole dancing, one of my natural talents is cooking! I would be a chef if I didn't have plans on becoming a pilot…and pole dancer on the side. But you don't have to eat anything; you can starve for all I care!"

"Well." Cassie paused, trying to find the right words. "That was more information about you than I cared to know."

"Cassie, my love, as these days pass you'll learn more about me than I know about myself."

"Umm…"

Nick winked at her four times before turning and walking in the kitchen. "Eggs and bacon will be done shortly."

* * *

This is so much fun to rewrite. :P I appreciate all the reviews! I'll probably add others later on, but I doubt it as far as Jason. If you want to be awesome, tell me what made you laugh the hardest in your review. It'll make me laugh, lol ^_^


	3. Seats, Stares and Kicking Children

"Cassie, can you remind me how we ended up in this position again?" A somewhat confused Jacqui asked as she looked at their seating arrangement.

Cassie blew a bubble with her gum until it popped. "What? You're telling me that you don't want to sit next to Dick Hale?"

Jacqui couldn't help but to let out a light laugh at her words, but then shook her head. "Good one, but no. I actually wanted to sit next to Takeda." Glancing over at Takeda, who was squished in between her father and Erron Black, she could tell by the almost miserable look on his face that he wanted the same.

"Ah, don't worry about it. You two will have plenty of time to kiss and cuddle when we get back to Earthrealm."

"You mean 'if' we get back."

"I don't know about you, but I'm definitely getting back." She turned her nose up at the thought of staying on Earth much longer. "I've only been here one night and I'm already sick of this place. The people suck, the transportation sucks, the living conditions suck—the only thing that isn't half bad is the food."

"I know, right? Nick wasn't lying when he said he could cook. Those eggs and bacon hit the spot."

"He did say it was one of his natural talents, although he left out being a psychotic, perverted jerk."

"Think he could really pole dance too? You might want to kiss and cuddle with him, Cassie…"

She rolled her eyes. "Is it that you want me to vomit?"

"What? You're telling me that you wouldn't want to receive a pole dance from Dick Hale?" Jacqui smirked.

Cassie grinned at her friend. "Alright, I asked for that one." She then glanced at where Takeda was sitting. "Hey, maybe if you're really sneaky, you can switch places with Uncle Jax before—"

"Ladies!" What seemed like from out of nowhere, Nick appeared and sat down in the seat he saved for himself in between the two friends. "Did you miss me?"

"And it's too late."

Jacqui let out a sigh and looked away. They'd only been on the bus for ten minutes and in that time, Nick had managed to make even more enemies out of the Mortal Kombat characters. His first mistake was bringing them on a cramped and overheated bus—of course, he didn't have many options as far as transportation went, so that wasn't entirely his fault. The second problem was the seating arrangements; he thought he was doing them a service by not placing certain people next to each other in order to avoid a potential fight. However, he didn't seem to realize or care that they people he had them sit next to was even worse.

"Sorry I was away from you two for so long, but Connie and Clyde just insisted upon sitting next to Kenshi, so I had to change a few seats around. So far, I think that I did a pretty good job." He ignored the group's mutual irritated expression and turned to Raiden, who he made sure was sitting across from him. "Comfortable, Raiddy?"

"…"

"Raiddy?" Sub Zero asked from the other side of Cassie.

"Yeah, it's a cross between Raiden and daddy. I figure this is a compromise we can both be happy with."

"…he doesn't look happy with it."

Nick glanced back at the Thunder god and saw that indeed, he did not look happy with it. "He'll come around…hopefully."

"Um, Nick?" Connie snapped her fingers to get his attention and then subtly pointed to the spectre sitting in the far back of the bus. Nick thought it would be in their best interest to sit him a good distance away, among the regular group of people. "Look at the way he's looking at the bus driver."

Scorpion was glaring furiously in the bus driver's direction. He'd been doing so for a while now and in the past few minutes, he started growling as well. Several people turned their heads and looked at him, which only seemed to increase his rage.

"What about it? It's the same way I look at half my teachers."

She grimaced. "Nick, for once, look at the situation seriously."

"I am, Conster. The situation is that we have fourteen Mortal Kombat characters in our lives right now. Were all on a bus, tightly cramped against each other, going to the mall—how much more serious do you want me to be?"

"Enough that you'll talk to Scorpion before he slaughters somebody!" Quickly getting irritated with her brother's nonchalant attitude, Connie yelled louder than she intended. When people turned to her, she looked down, embarrassed.

Nick laughed. "See what happens when you forget to take your medicine, Con-gress?

If looks could kill.

"You and your brother have a very playful relationship, huh?" Kenshi asked suddenly.

"Playful…sure…that's one word for it."

"Though you two are twins, you behavior suggests that you're the older sibling."

"Believe it or not, the same could be said about a two year old standing next to Nick."

He smiled warmly. "I appreciate you two dedicating your time to helping us get back home. I know my friends may have mixed feelings about this situation, but I'm grateful."

Connie relaxed, her worries about Scorpion washing away upon hearing her favorite character's words. "It's no problem, really. I'm glad to help you guys out. If you need anything while your hear, just ask me or Nick…preferably me."

"Will do."

"Stop squishing me!" Reptile growled and bumped Kung Jin's arm.

Kung Jin frowned and bumped his arm back. "You think I want to be this close to you? Just in case you didn't know, the smell of frog is not appealing."

"I'm not a frog!"

"Toad, excuse me."

Before one of the twins could attend to the situation which turned into an arm bumping match, another one appeared between D'Vorah and Johnny Cage. D'Vorah was threatening to unleash a hoard of bugs on him if he didn't stop bumping her.

Johnny held up his hands innocently and grinned. "Sorry, it was an accident. I didn't bug you, did I?"

She frowned deeply. "The Hive is going to enjoy feeding on you."

"No!" Connie shouted when it looked like she was going to take her pincers out.

"No!" Nick shouted when Reptile made like he was going to make a slime ball.

At this point the people of the bus were highly confused and some of them got off at the next stop, sensing the danger. Many stayed, however, and those were the unlucky ones. They thought they were confused, but they didn't know the real definition of the word until Scorpion jumped up and yelled in the direction of the bus driver.

"If you cannot keep your eyes to yourself then you will lose them!"

"Scorpion, you can't do that!" It was Nick's turn to jump up this time and after assuring Cassie and Jacqui that he'd be right back, he made his way down the aisle to Scorpion. Against his better judgment, he leaned in to whisper to him. "Listen, I can only imagine how hard it must be for you to be calm…and not attack everything with a pulse…but I need you to try. We're almost to the mall. Just sit back down please."

"I will do no such thing! He will lose more than his eyes!"

The bus, which had been stopped for a moment to let more people off, suddenly closed its doors and pulled forward. The momentum of the sudden movement caused Scorpion to fall back into his seat.

"That's a good resurrected fire ninja." Nick gave him a look of approval and as if that was all there was to it, proceeded to walk back to his seat. "Hey girls, I know you missed me, but I'm going to have to request that you don't fight each other in order to hug me. There's enough of me to go around."

"Is there enough of you that both of us could attack?" Jacqui said. "That's the real question."

"Jacqui, my ebony queen, I sense a little underlying hostility in your tone."

"Only a little? I was sure there was a lot more."

He turned to Cassie. "Did you do something to upset her? I love you Cassie, but I can't have you upset my future wife…however, seeing as you are also my future wife, I can't have her upset you either. This may pose a problem if one of you gets jealous over how much time I'm spending with the other. I wonder if there's some sort of handbook available for how to keep your wives happy…"

"I don't know," Cassie started and rolled her eyes, "but while you're looking for that, see if there's handbook available for how to kiss my—"

"Cass," Takeda interrupted her. "We can switch seats if you want."

Nick opened his mouth to tell him no, but he couldn't stop something else from coming out instead. "EIFFEL TOWER!"

Several of the passengers on the bus looked at Nick this time, causing him to look away, slightly embarrassed. It was his sister's turn to laugh at him this time. "See what happens when you forget to take your medicine, Nick?"

He glowered at her, but then turned back to Takeda. "I'm sorry Takeda, but Cassie has to sit here."

"Why?" Takeda shot him a look, knowing there was no good reason for her sit next to him.

Wanting to deter him from asking any more questions, Nick just smiled and tapped his own head a few times. Catching the signal to read his mind, Takeda did so, but immediately regretted it as soon as he realized that his thoughts were once again inappropriate.

Grimacing, he turned away. "You're disgusting."

Nick laughed at Takeda's discomfort, confident that he wouldn't reveal the private thoughts this time.

"What was he thinking?" Sonya demanded, a frown on her face.

"…I'd rather not say, General, but it wasn't about you." Takeda hesitated and then looked at the floor. "…but now it is."

"Listen you little punk," Sonya started and pointed at Nick. "I'd appreciate it if you kept your thoughts on returning us to our world and only that."

"That's a hard task to ask of me when you look so beautiful."

Johnny spoke up then. "He's got a point, baby."

Sonya shot Johnny a hard look. "What did I say about calling me 'baby'?"

"That you liked it, right?"

"Cage, you're on thin ice with me."

"Maybe I should enlist in Sub Zero's help then."

Cassie blew another bubble until it popped. "Ladies and Gentlemen, my happily married parents. If you try real hard, I'm sure you too can have a successful relationship like theirs."

Sonya cut her eyes at her daughter for a moment, but before she could respond, Scorpion caught her attention as well as everyone else's. Letting out an angry cry, he jumped up and then grabbed a man that was sitting across from him and threw him to the floor. The bus immediately came to a stop, making it all the easier for Scorpion to grab the man again. He held him in the air by the neck.

"You want to see so badly?! I'll give you a closer look!"

"Ah—help!" The man was launched out the window in the next few seconds.

Several of the people started to panic then; some got up and started running to the front while others tried to escape using the emergency exit. There was a few that decided to stay and take out their phones to record him, but they were launched out the window shortly after.

"All of you will suffer!"

When he grabbed an old woman, Nick and Connie jumped up. They spoke in unison. "Scorpion, put her down!"

"I'll put her down…six feet down!" He threw the woman out the window as well.

"My hip!"

Nick, who had been looking extremely concerned, couldn't help but to laugh at that. Connie and several of the characters looked disgusted with Nick, but turned their attention back to the angry spectre who set his sights on the bus driver again.

"You will rue this day foolish mortal!" Petrified, the bus driver got out of his seat, opened the door and ran out. The spectre stalked angrily to the front of the bus, toward the door. "I will shatter every bone in your body!"

Nick jumped in his way before he got past him. "Scorpion, what happened? I thought we came to an understanding. I asked you to sit down, you declined angrily, but ended up sitting back down anyway—remember?"

"I am going to destroy that man! Either you will step aside or be destroyed in the process!"

"A man on a mission. I can appreciate that." Nick nodded and politely stepped aside to let Scorpion pass.

Connie's jaw dropped when she saw him basically give Scorpion the go ahead to run wild and kill an innocent man. Seeing no other real choice, she bit her lip in nervousness and forced herself to block his path. She quickly closed the door and stood in front of it before Scorpion could go past her. She swore she saw flames in his white eyes as he stopped in front of her.

"You dare challenge me?"

"Me? No, no, no, no, no…no. The last thing I'm doing is challenging you; unlike my brother, I am intelligent. I just…I can't let you hurt the bus driver or anymore people. They've done nothing wrong."

"They did everything wrong! They're mere existence is a wrong!"

"Technically your existence in this world is a wrong, so…"

He reach over his shoulder and pulled out his sword. "If you don't wish to lose your head, you will move aside."

"Don't be stupid Ex-Con; just move." Nick hissed at his from his seat, making no attempt to help her. "It's just the bus driver; it's not like he has a job worth living for."

She ignored her brother and stood her ground. "Scorpion, I can't let you do this. Look, people are going to stare at you in this world, alright? It's a part of life…especially when one's eyes are white and their soul is dark. You have to deal with it."

Not wanting to acknowledge what she'd said, he growled and glared harder at her. He wouldn't accept anything he didn't want to! All she was doing was wasting precious time he could be using to brutally kill the bus driver! With an increased amount of rage, he lifted his sword in the air. Connie shut her eyes tight and she cowered slightly, putting her hands over her head.

"Connie, no!" She heard Nick call out to her.

After several seconds passed without pain, she slowly reopened her eyes. She was beyond surprised to find Kenshi standing over her, his hand having caught Scorpion's arm before he landed the blow.

"She's right, my friend. You need to calm down. We can't allow you to continue to hurt these innocent people."

After recovering from the shock, Scorpion snatched his arm back. "I am not your friend, swordsman!"

"I know Hanzo is in there somewhere." He offered a smile. "It'd be in your best interest to take a seat, Scorpion. As Nicholas Hale has already said, we're almost to the mall."

"You wish to challenge me?!"

"That isn't what I said, but if it's a challenge you seek…" He pulled out his sword too. "My ancestors will guide me to success."

"Your ancestors are in the Netherrealm…as you will be soon."

Without warning, Takeda pulled himself from between the two men that were squishing him, and stood up to join his father. "You'll have to face the both of us, Scorpion."

"Three of us," Jacqui said, standing up as well. Nick tried to grab her arm to stop her, but he wasn't able to get a good grip before she walked over to Takeda's side.

"You might want to rethink your options," Cassie told Scorpion as she went to stand next to her team.

Not long after, Kung Jin joined and then Jax, Johnny and Sonya. The rest of the group joined as well, and surprisingly some joined Scorpions side. They bickered amongst themselves about the outcome of this battle for a few minutes.

Quietly, as to not bring attention to himself, Nick hissed at Raiden, who still sat across from him. There was a concerned look on his face. "Raiddy, aren't you going to do anything? I need you to stop them. We're in public this time; this is not okay!"

Raiden didn't look happy with how he addressed him, but he gave him a nod of agreement anyway. He then teleported in between the divided groups which were essentially who wanted to hurt innocent people and who didn't. He shot a bolt of lightning at the ceiling to get their attention and then proceeded to speak to them.

Meanwhile, Connie managed to sneak past the group over to where her brother was.

"Good going, Con-troversial Issues! You couldn't have just let him kill the bus driver; you had to let your morals intercede."

"Morals? Is that why you think I risked my life to stop him? Because my morals were so strong?" She grimaced. "This is more than just one man's life, Nick. If we didn't stop Scorpion, he would do this again and again. He just threw like six people out the window! We'd end up with a pile of dead bodies—all that blood on our hands."

"You mean on his hands."

"No, I mean on ours. Somebody's going to have to pay for those lives, and when Scorpion returns to his world, guess who it's going to be?"

"…you?"

Connie punched him in the chest as a kneejerk reaction. "You can't just let Scorpion get away with what he wants. I know he's scary—terrifying would be a better word actually—but you have to step up and put him in his place."

"And how do you expect me to do that?"

"How about not politely stepping aside for him when he wants to kill someone? Or laughing when he breaks an elderly woman's hip? There's a start."

Nick chuckled lightly again at the thought, earning himself another punch to the chest. He grimaced as rubbed the spot where she punched him and then glanced at the spectre who was yelling his head off at Raiden. He didn't particularly want to agree, but he didn't have much of a choice. As much as he hated to admit it, his sister was right. "Fine. I guess you're right."

She let out a sigh of relief that she was finally able to get through to him. "It's for the best. You may get a few beatings, but you'll get his respect too."

His eyes were low at the thought. "I'm looking forward to it."

After another minute or so, Raiden appeared in front of them, having successfully calmed down the group. "I have spoken to them, Nicholas Hale, and they are calm for the time being."

"Even Scorpion?"

"Scorpion's misguided anger has been assuaged for a moment. He will no longer try to pursue the bus driver, but he is still very agitated. It is in your best interest to not bother him further or else he will likely strike without warning."

"VEGETARIAN!"

"…vegetarian?"

"Blah, I can't believe I just said that with my mouth." Nick was disgusted with himself. "I'd sooner become a cannibal before I gave up meat."

Connie looked disturbed and took a step away from her brother.

"Anyway," Raiden said, slightly disturbed as well, "How are we to get the mall now? The bus driver is long gone, I suspect."

"Good question, Raiddy!" He pondered on it for a few seconds. "I could drive the bus there…"

"No, you're not," Connie said immediately.

"…but as you can see, Con-Artist is not fond of my driving skills," he said with a grin. "Also, it's probably best not to get caught driving the evidence, since I'm 97.4 percent sure that one of those scared citizens called the police. So I figure we'll walk. It's just down the street from here."

"Alright." Raiden nodded, more comfortable with walking in the first place.

Just as Nick cleared his throat, ready to announce the plan to the group, his sister touched his arm. "Before we leave, I think we should have a little talk with them."

"About?"

"About how to act in the mall."

"Really, Conster? I think they can handle themselves properly in a mall."

"Yeah, you're right. I think an acid spitting lizard and a bald bug woman know exactly how to act in a confined area full of people."

"That's exactly what I think too." He turned back to the group. "So everyone if you'll line up at the door, we're going to walk to—"

Connie pinched him. "Talk to them about it, Nick."

"Fine." He looked unwilling, but if it'd make his sister quit nagging him, he'd do it. "Listen you guys, we're going to walk to rest of the way to the mall. It's just down the street. Before that though, we need to have a brief discussion about how to act in the mall."

"It won't take long," Connie spoke as well, "we just need to make sure we're all on the same page. Like those rules Nick spoke of earlier, there are some for the mall too."

Jax let out a gruff sound. "Why are there so many rules?"

"Because we need structure here in our world. You guys can go out and kill everything in sight, but we can't…or at least, we can't if we don't want to end up in jail."

"What are the rules for the mall?" Reptile demanded. "I will decide if I will heed them or not."

"You will heed them, Reptile. If you want to get back home, you will heed them," Connie warned.

Nick walked toward the group. "Number One: Don't act like yourself. Period. You all are destructive, uncultured, mean, violent and frankly, rude. People won't take well to that, so don't be yourselves."

Erron rolled his eyes. "Then, pray tell, who should would be?"

"Well, if you need an example, me and Conster. We are who you should strive to be like."

"So basically a hormonal teenager?" Sonya asked.

Connie made a face. "I'm not hormonal…"

"No. Just a regular teenager. Believe it or not, we're normal for our age. You'll encounter a lot of people like us in the mall."

"This One hopes not," D'Vorah said suddenly, grimacing.

Nick looked at her. "D'Vorah, my sweet, hairless, disgusting lady, me and my sister are just the tip of the iceberg."

"What Nick means to say is that people are weird on this planet. So you should try to tone down on the violence and abrasiveness."

"Actually, what I meant to say was that you should practice acting like us."

Connie turned to him, slightly confused. "What? Is that really necessary?"

"Yeah. Just to make sure they can handle it. Um…Kung Jin you pretend to be me and Mileena—you've been awful quiet—you pretend to be my sister," he said as he made everyone give them some room.

"I miss Mittens," Mileena grumbled, her arms folded across her chest.

Nick looked more understanding. "Did you like him? He's great isn't he? We've had him since he was a puppy."

"Mittens is more than great. He and I will rule Outworld together one day."

Before Nick could respond, Erron let out a 'pfft' sound. "You'll never be the ruler of Outworld."

When Mileena turned to glare at him, Nick grabbed her arm and moved her to the open space next to Kung Jin. "Sweetheart, ignore him. You can be ruler…in your head. For now though, we need to focus on practice." He backed up and then purposely brushed past them. "Now, you're walking normally and somebody bumps into you by accident. You…?"

"Demand an apology," Mileena said. "If they refuse, force one out of them."

"Tell them to watch where they're going." Kung Jin shrugged.

Nick made a face. "No…neither of those were correct. Try again, but think of me and Connie." He backed up and brushed past them again. "What do you do?"

Mileena took a moment to think about Connie's possible reaction. "Quiver with fear?"

Connie frowned; she didn't expect an Oscar worthy performance or response, but she certainly wasn't looking for that one either. She let it slide though; it was only Day 2, they just didn't know her well enough yet.

"Ignore them," Kung Jin, tired of this already, said what he thought Nick wanted to hear.

"Both of you are wrong and right. While that is a reasonable response from my sister, it's not appropriate. Mileena, you're better off just saying excuse me or ignoring them. Now Jin, if it's a male or ugly female, ignore them. If it's a pretty female, you might want to try to get her number…"

"Nick." Connie got her brother's attention quickly and then shook her hand back and forth in front of her neck as if to gesture 'bad idea'. "No…just no."

"What? I'm trying to help him out."

"No. Trust me. It won't work."

Nick looked confused, but then thinking his sister was just nagging him, rolled his eyes. "Anyway, it's up to you Jin." Kung Jin started to say something, but Nick just pushed him and Mileena toward the door. "Go wait over there. Once everybody's had a turn, we'll leave. Who's next?" He didn't wait for a response. "Sub Zero and D'Vorah, thank you."

The two glanced at each other and then reluctantly stepped up.

"Hmm…a person offers you something to drink. You say?"

Sub Zero thought this was an easy one. "Thank you."

D'Vorah looked uninterested. "This One is not thirsty. You may leave our presence now."

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, Sub Zero. Correct, more or less, D'Vorah." Nick said, surprising the ice man. "Look Sub Zero, I don't blame you for not knowing, because this probably isn't a thing you have to worry about in your world. But here, taking drinks from people is a big no-no. They could've put something in it—if someone offers you an open drink, it could be drugged."

Connie facepalmed. "Nick…first of all, I doubt they'd be trying to drug a grown man that's freezing. And secondly, we're going to the mall not some rave party."

"You never know, Conster-pated. I'm just trying to be on the safe side." He turned back to the two. "So Sub Zero, when someone offers you a drink, you say?"

"I will not allow you to drug me." He made and ice ball in his hand and then crushed it angrily.

"We could do without that last little ice crushing part, but essentially yeah, you've got it." He moved the two along to the door. "Next? How about Reptile and Jacqui?"

They two looked like this was a waste of time and that they didn't want to do it, but they were forced to step up.

"Let's see…someone's little brat runs over and kicks you in the leg. Your response is to…?"

"Grab the child and threaten him with death if he does it again." Reptile looked irritated by the thought.

Jacqui gave him a weird look. "Or you can just, you know, tell his parent."

"While I can understand your frustration Reptile, I'm going to have to side with my love on this one," Nick explained. "To avoid jail time, you should just tell his parent or go on about your way. However…if the parent is not looking, you can try to secretly kick the child back. Not too hard though or you know, he'll die."

Connie intervened immediately. "No! Not at all! Do not kick the child back, Reptile!"

Nick waited for Connie to look away before he looked back at Reptile silently motioned for him to kick the child. He then cleared his throat and pushed the two toward the door. "But yeah, that's the basic idea. Good job. I hope everybody's paying attention. Next?"

This went on until every one of the characters got a chance to give a 'normal reaction'. Then Connie and Nick allowed the characters outside and they led them down the street to the mall.

* * *

Really sorry this chapter took a long time to update guys. I was really sick these past few weeks. How do you even get sick in May? Anyway, I hope you laughed as always. Thanks for all those reviews! And Sutori-Artifex I'm glad you think I'm doing much better this time around; I appreciate that. I hope this chapter is up to your standards, because I want that cookie! :P


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